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Geneva, 28 February 2007. At 6:00 am this morning the heaviest piece of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) particle detector began a momentous journey into the experiment's cavern, 100 metres underground at CERN1. Using a huge gantry crane, custom-built by the Vorspann System Losinger Group, the pre-assembled central piece, containing the magnet and weighing as much as five Jumbo jets (1920 tonnes) is being gently lowered into place. ???This is a challenging feat of engineering, as there are just 20 cm of leeway between the detector and the walls of the shaft,??? said Austin Ball, Technical Coordinator of CMS. ???The detector is suspended by four massive cables, each with 55 strands and attached to a step-by-step hydraulic jacking system, with sophisticated monitoring and control to ensure the object does not sway or tilt.??? The entire process is expected to take about ten hours to complete.










